1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to apparatus and systems for extracting energy from flowing water and in particular, to those devices and systems that are adapted to be removably mounted offshore at select locations to extract energy from the waves.
2. Description of the Related Art
The construction and arrangement of breakwaters to reduce erosion of ocean shelves and the shoreline has changed since use of concrete fixtures. For example, such devices and systems have been disclosed in:
______________________________________ U.S. Pat. No. Inventor(s) ______________________________________ 527,513 See et al. 1,593,863 Brasher 3,373,821 Sare 3,842,606 Stiles 3,846,990 Bowley 3,894,397 Fair 3,938,338 Cullen 4,118,937 Mansen 4,178,517 Salomon et al. 4,264,233 McCambridge 4,341,489 Karnas 4,407,607 McCambridge 4,431,337 Iwasa 4,669,913 Temple 4,691,661 Deiana 4,729,691 Sample 4,729,692 Techer 4,748,338 Boyce 4,776,724 Iswald 4,776,725 Brode 4,844,654 Widerman 4,856,933 4,856,934 Nelson 4,856,935 Haras 4,900,188 Haselton et al. 5,104,258 Ianell 5,122,015 Shen 5,238,325 Krenzler 5,238,326 Creter 5,246,307 Rauch 5,250,696 Beardsley 5,556,229 Bishop et al 5,564,369 Barber et al. Foreign Patent Laurie 805,789 (British) ______________________________________
British Patent No. 805,789 also discloses a breakwater device which employs gas bubbles in the path of wave motion to reduce sea waves and swell.
Traditional breakwaters, seawalls, jetties have failed to substantially curtail the destructive force of moving water primarily because of their construction, and tendencies to reflect or direct wave energy in destructive ways or concentrate the energy in local hot spots. Erosion and the scouring effects of the misdirected energy lead to the loss of the beach and undermining of the structures which were meant to protect the shoreline.
In addition, other fixed structures such as groins lead to the loss of natural flows and downdrift beaches by interrupting the littoral flows of sand and generally create a surplus condition on the updrift side and a starvation condition on the downdrift beaches.
Other erosion control systems which flow offshore do not provide the arrangement of surfaces which deflect and redirect breaking waves so that eddies and vortexes produced interfere with and cancel each other, as well as the oncoming portions of the next successive wave.
Many of these known devices and systems are rigidly mounted to the shore or shelf portion underneath the surf in a manner which severely restricts, if not eliminates, removal of the system to another remote location where the barriers are needed more urgently.